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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24956548">hot under the collar</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProblematicPitch/pseuds/trekmemes'>trekmemes (ProblematicPitch)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Trek: Enterprise</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Established Relationship, M/M, Mild Language, Oneshot, Sexting, Suggestive Themes, in which malcolm is clingy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 09:47:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>864</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24956548</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProblematicPitch/pseuds/trekmemes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Originally posted March 6th, 2018 to my <a href="https://trekmemes.tumblr.com/post/171586769409/listen-can-you-please-do-tripmalcolm-and-sexting">tumblr blog here, </a> for the prompt "sexting on padds is pretty dangerous if you almost hand it in to your supervisor". Some minor edits have been added.</p><p>After several long shifts, Trip and Malcolm decide to blow off a little steam.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Malcolm Reed/Charles "Trip" Tucker III</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>37</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>hot under the collar</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Trip Tucker rubbed his forehead and sighed. The data in the engine manifest was starting to bleed together in long lines, and he could swear he was seeing sparks in the corners of his vision. This was the third night this week he’d clocked double shifts and overtime—if he didn’t know better, he’d have thought Archer was trying to kill him.</p><p>Of course, Archer was pulling more than his fair share of late nights. He slunk about the bridge until the wee hours of the morning, eyes red from sleep deprivation, overseeing operations with an obsessive perfectionism that was earning him the name ‘Watchman’ among some of the junior crew.</p><p>Trip knew how important this mission was to everyone aboard, and to the folks waiting back at home. He just wasn’t sure burning the crew out before even completing the first year of the mission was the way to go. </p><p>A message flashed across his PADD. It was from Malcolm.</p><p><br/>
</p><p><b>mr: </b>Hey!</p><p><b>mr: </b>I’ve been thinking about last night </p><p><b>mr: </b>Missing you already x </p><p><br/>
</p><p>Trip pinched the bridge of his nose. He took a second to calculate a reply, fingers brushing clumsily over the keys. </p><p><br/>
</p><p><b>tt: </b>hey Reed</p><p><b>tt: </b>sorry I’m a little busy right now </p><p><b>mr: </b>Another late night?</p><p><b>tt: </b>yeah. you know how it is with Archer</p><p><b>tt: </b>work keeps on piling up. gotta log extra hours to keep it in check</p><p><b>mr: </b>Need some help? My shift just ended, I’ll have a bit of spare time before bed</p><p><b>tt: </b>thanks for the offer but you should get some sleep</p><p><b>tt: </b>I think I’ve got it covered here</p><p><b>mr: </b>You sure? I may not know much about engineering but I sure know my way around a wrench</p><p><b>mr: </b>...</p><p><b>mr: </b>That was NOT meant to be a euphemism.</p><p><br/>
</p><p>Trip laughed despite himself.</p><p><br/>
</p><p><b>tt: </b>.......</p><p><b>tt: </b>well you sure seemed to know your way around mine</p><p><b>mr: </b>OH!</p><p><b>mr: </b>Okay, so we’re doing this</p><p><b>mr: </b>Erm, let me see</p><p><b>mr: </b>I do know a few other ways of keeping you awake—</p><p><b>tt: </b>is that so?</p><p><br/>
</p><p>They volleyed messages back and forth every few minutes for the next hour as Trip busied himself with tweaking the matter/antimatter ratio, making small adjustments to the thrust output, and generally cleaning up and recording the minutiae of the day’s work.</p><p>They were in the middle of a fairly graphic description of some complicated poses (as well as an unfortunate number of space-related puns) when Trip abruptly messaged:</p><p><br/>
</p><p><b>tt: </b>hey, got to take a quick break</p><p><br/>
</p><p>He hopped in the turbolift, whistling, holding his PADD with the completed specs. Finished a full thirty minutes earlier than last week! </p><p>“Good evening, captain,” Trip announced as he stepped onto the bridge.</p><p>Archer yawned ferociously, looking dog-tired. “Is it not morning yet?”</p><p>“A little past 23 hundred hours, sir. Nice night for it though,” he added, looking out at the expanse on the viewscreen, which happened to contained a lovely pink nebula complete with swirling gases. He handed Archer the engineering specs for verification.</p><p>Suddenly, he heard the tell-tale ‘ping’ of a message alert.</p><p>“Aah!” he yelped, snatching the PADD directly from the captain’s hands. </p><p>“What on Earth?” Archer asked, absolutely taken aback.</p><p>“Sorry sir! Forgot to add an important calculation. I’ll be right back!” he called over his shoulder as he ran at full speed to the turbolift, cheeks flushing bright red. He mashed the button for engineering and glanced down to check the damage. Sure enough, the latest message (impatient question marks from Malcolm ‘?????’) had also pulled up the message client, proudly displaying the last six of their rather colorful messages.</p><p>He was about to escape into the privacy of main engineering when a shadowy figure loomed out from the darkness. He lashed out instinctively, but the figure caught his wrist and stepped out into the light.</p><p>“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Reed, you nearly sent me into heart failure,” Trip wheezed. He pushed him back into engineering.</p><p>“What? I just came down to see you. Couldn’t seem to stay away.” He looked him over. “What’s got you in such a rush?” </p><p>“Archer was looking over my analysis when your message showed up, genius! Look—” he shoved the PADD at Malcolm. </p><p>The color drained from his face. “How much did he see?”</p><p>“Nothing, I hope, considering I ripped the damn thing out of his hands and took off down the hallway.”</p><p>He let out a long, slow breath. “That was a close save.”</p><p>“No shit.”</p><p>Malcolm began to giggle nervously. “I haven’t had to sneak about like this with a date since my cadet days. Look at me, my palms are sweaty!” He looked at Trip appraisingly. “I have to admit, though, it is sort of—sexy.”</p><p>“Oh, you think so?” Trip growled playfully, pushing Malcolm up onto the workbench and kissing him a few times for good measure. “You, sir, are going to end up getting me in a lot of trouble.”</p><p>“Er, speaking of, don’t you have a report to deliver about now?” </p><p>“Right!” he snatched up the PADD and dashed out the door. “Don’t go anywhere!”</p><p>Malcolm smirked fondly as he watched him leave. “I’ll be waiting.”</p>
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